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Saloon car sensation Andrew Herron remains confident of challenging at the
front of the field during Saturday’s opening two rounds of the 2007 ELF Renault
Clio Cup Winter Championship after topping the times during the first of today’s
two official test sessions at Donington Park National Circuit.
The JHR Developments ace, from Dromore in Co. Down, Northern Ireland,
shrugged off early session driveshaft problems to produce the quickest lap of
the opening test period with a time of 1m 19.223 seconds (88.94mph), 0.155
seconds faster than ELF Renault Clio Cup regular and reigning Winter Champion
Niki Lanik.
“It was good to be fastest in the first session, especially as we had some
problems with the driveshaft early on”, explained Andrew, “We only managed 12
laps in total and I didn’t feel that my best lap was all that good anyway,
there’s much more to come from me and the car so I’m feeling very confident for
Saturday.”
In session two, the 19-year-old racer set a best time of 1m 19.436 seconds
(88.70mph) and although slipping to sixth fastest – fourth on combined times –
Andrew isn’t concerned as he and his Dronfield based team opted to use the
period to try set-up variations on the Brian Herron Contracts-backed Clio.
“We didn’t push for a quick time during the second session, we wanted to
take the opportunity to try a lot of different things with the car”, said
Andrew, “Taking that into account though, we were still quickest in the middle
of the session when the track wasn’t at its best, we were consistently fastest
lap after lap at that point.
“At the end when (Harry) Vaulkhard and (Alex) MacDowall went quicker we
weren’t even on track so it’s not a problem, we know we have the pace. I’m
really looking forward to Saturday, I’m confident we have consistently strong
pace with which to challenge for some good results. Two podiums would be great
but I aim to fight for wins too.”
Qualifying for the opening two races of the ELF Renault Clio Cup Winter
Championship will take place at approximately 09.00 on Saturday, 3rd November,
with round one itself set to start at 11.00 and round two expected to get
underway at 14.05.
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